Blue Jays Mailbag: Opening Day Lineup and Roster Options

We’re nearly two weeks away from when pitchers and catchers report, and yet it feels like MLB’s offseason hasn’t quite managed to hit its stride. Plenty of free agents remain unsigned, plenty of trades are still likely to be made, and for the Toronto Blue Jays that means a roster that remains in flux—leaving us with a fuzzy picture of what might come next, if anything.

Especially when you start looking at the margins of the Jays’ roster, there are plenty of questions still to be answered. And that’s precisely what I’m going to attempt to do in this week’s edition of our Blue Jays mailbag!

Tim Mayza. Gift Ngoepe. R.A. Dickey. Travis Snider. Rowdy Tellez. All these names will actually be discussed this week—plus some actual exciting ones, too! So let’s do it to it!

And remember, if you have a Blue Jays question you’d like me to tackle for the next mailbag, be sure to send it to stoeten@gmail.com. As always, I have not read any of Griff’s answers.

Do you think the Jays give the kids like Jansen, Gurriel and Alford a legit shot at opening day if they blow the doors off in Spring Training or are veteran presents too shiny for Shatkins.

Lionel

First off, never “Shatkins.” Never, ever “Shatkins.”

Secondly, what an utterly ridiculous way to frame this question. You’re talking about kids who, combined, have 99 plate appearances above Double-A. Young players that are almost universally believed to still need more time in the minor leagues. Players who are clearly behind more established players on the Jays’ roster, who have actual big league track records of success. These are guys who, with the possible exception of Alford, absolutely should not be on the Opening Day roster, and absolutely should not be reason to cause major roster shifts if they perform well in a tiny sample against players of dramatically varying talent and experience levels in the damn Grapefruit League. And yet you’re trying to preemptively create some kind of an issue here about Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro having blind loyalty to veterans or something? For fuck sakes, man.

8 Comments |

Why does the following appear in the Vice Sports article: “As always, I have not read any of Griff’s answers”? Surely you didn’t hijack a Griff Bag for this format? [Searching the Star, I don’t see one]

Why never Shatkins? Just because it’s what garbage people on twitter tend to use? Or is it derogatory in some way that I haven’t realized? Because it does roll off the tongue a little more easily than “Atkins unless it’s a decision with strategic implications in which case Shapiro will be involved in a supervisory capacity not to include direct negotiations with other concerned parties.”

“Atkins unless it’s a decision with strategic implications in which case Shapiro will be involved in a supervisory capacity not to include direct negotiations with other concerned parties.”

Would the Front Office, or the FO do the trick? Or maybe just Atkins? I don’t remember ever feeling the need to say Anthopoulos unless it’s a decision with strategic implicaktions in which case Beeston will be involved in a supervisory capacity not to inlcude direct negotiations with other concerned parties.”

I kind of agree with you. Whenever I see “Shatkins’ or ‘Shapkins’ its a sign the post was written by a) a 12 year old or, b) a moron. In fact it’s kind of an internet ‘handshake’ where the very stupidest people can connect to each other. So it serves a purpose. And it doesn’t detract at all from the value of a post, because anyone idiot enough to write it has nothing of value to say. So keep up with the ‘Shatkins/Shapkins’. It helps the rest weed through posts.